Strategy, markets & tax-deferral thinking.
Clear, practical perspective on 1031 exchanges, DSTs, and building durable real estate wealth — written for owners and investors, not specialists.
The settlement statement lines that quietly create a tax bill
Exchange funds can pay the costs of transferring a property. Pay the costs of operating or financing it and you have created boot, on a transaction where nothing else went wrong.
The seven things a DST is forbidden to do, and the escape hatch that costs you
Revenue Ruling 2004-86 keeps a Delaware Statutory Trust passive, which is exactly what makes your interest exchangeable. The springing LLC lifts those limits and may end your next exchange.
You moved out and rented your old house. What can you still exclude?
Renting your former home usually does not cost you the Section 121 exclusion. The nonqualified use rule bites in the other direction, and the clock you should be watching is three years.
Can you 1031 into a property overseas? The border rule that surprises people
US and foreign real property are not like-kind under Section 1031(h). Foreign-to-foreign exchanges are fully available though, and three US territories sit in a strange middle ground.
Held for investment, or held for sale? The line that decides your exchange
Section 1031 excludes property held primarily for sale. Dealer status attaches to properties rather than people, and it is decided after the fact by whoever reads your records.
When the distributions stop: what actually happens if a DST goes wrong
Most DST material describes the good outcome. Distributions can be cut or suspended, values can fall, and you have almost no levers. Knowing that in advance changes how you buy.
One building, two tax breaks: splitting a duplex between Section 121 and a 1031
You live upstairs and rent downstairs. When you sell, the IRS is willing to treat that as two transactions, and each half gets a different, genuinely valuable break.
Who holds the deed while you wait? Inside the parking arrangement
A reverse exchange only works because someone else owns your new property for a while. The safe harbor that permits it comes with a five-day document and a hard 180-day ceiling.
Can you exchange into a building you already own part of? Usually no, with one real exception
The rule sounds absolute: an exchange requires acquiring new property. Then a partner wants out of the LLC you are already in, and a revenue ruling quietly changes the answer.
Boot netting: cash cures debt, but debt never cures cash
Only net boot is taxed, and the offsets follow rules that run in one direction. Understanding which way they run is what separates a clean exchange from an avoidable bill.
Selling the hotel, the restaurant, the practice: only part of that price can be exchanged
When a business sells with its building, the contract is really three sales at once. Since 2017 only one of them qualifies, and how the price is allocated decides your tax bill.
Two paragraphs in the contract: the cooperation clause nobody reads until it's missing
Your purchase and sale agreement is where an exchange quietly succeeds or fails. The language is short, costs the other side nothing, and is far harder to add once the contract is signed.
You have to name the property before you finish inspecting it
The 45-day rule forces a genuinely uncomfortable sequence: commit to a list first, learn what you actually bought second. Front-loading diligence is the only real defense.
The 30-year rule: when a lease is treated like owning the land outright
A long ground lease is not fee ownership, but the tax code stops caring at a certain point. Thirty years of remaining term, options included, and it becomes like-kind to real estate you own.
Your entire sale sits in a stranger's account. Here's how to make sure it's still there
Qualified intermediaries are not banks and are not federally regulated. When one failed in 2008, the investors who had insisted on segregated accounts got their money back. Most of the others waited years.
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Occasional, substantive notes on tax-deferral strategy and replacement-property trends. No noise.